Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Now that I know I can get icing onto a cake using a butter knife and ziplock, I decided it was time to make life a little easier (and more interesting). First thing this morning, mom and I headed to the cake store to buy some pastry bags, icing tips, rose nails, and yes - a huge HUGE tub of icing so that we could get right down to business. We also bought two books with pictures for inspiration.

Back home, mom got busy baking more cakes. Once cooled, I used my new spatula to slater on some icing. Oddly enough, I found the spatula much more unwieldy than the butter knife. Also, the icing was more stiff than yesterday's so I ended up with some crumbs in the icing. The final product?

Not the prettiest cake, but much more experimental. I shell piped the bottom, tried my hand at some rope around the bottom edge, an oversized version of cornelli lace, two zigzag puff leaves, and of course four alleged Wilton Roses.

OMG those roses!!! Well, I guess the main problem was that the icing was getting hot in my hands, so it became more fluid (and messy), and then a droopy mess to work with. I haven't got the knack of it yet. For the first several attempts I had my tip upside down... by the time I realized and flipped it, the icing was getting runny. The four above were the best I could pull off.

Mom also tried her hand at some roses.

She wouldn't claim title to her masterpiece, instead attributing it to Mr. Van Gogh. It may not be a looker, but I'd call that a vast improvement from Day 1, no?